Research Subject: Microbiota transplantation from healthy donors to treat covid-19

C. difficile infection has been successfully treated in Human Patients using faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). [1] It’s not a theoretical discussion. The UK has authorized a treatment center to treat this illness. [2]

Could FMT be used to treat a covid-19 infection as well? Covid-19 and FMT has been seen recently as a dangerous link. RNA has been found in the stool of some donors that could result in unforeseen hazard to the recipient. [3]

With this in mind, one might begin to ponder the possibility of developing something similar to mRNA inoculation by means of FMT. However, that is not the focus of this essay.

I pose the following question: what if the stool from cured donors — with no hazardous trace of covid-19 in it — somehow had the ability to modulate an immune response on covid-19 Patients that would prove beneficial in terms of symptom alleviation or even a more swift recovery?

There has been evidence of immune response modulation in chickens using FMT for the influenza virus. [4] Although influenza is not a coronavirus, maybe the underlying principle that leads to a response modulation still applies, it may be the case it applies to Humans as well.

Granted; this seems a bit of a stretch — from influenza to coronavirus and from chickens to Humans, however… considering FMT is already a tested medical technique and cured donors are somewhat easy to find, it seems relatively easy to test the hypothesis of FMT’s beneficial response modulation in covid-19 patients.

There is also the possibility to test the effect of FMT from healthy donors that, despite contracting de disease, feel completely healthy during the infection’s duration. There are documented cases describing such cases that remain a scientific riddle. [5] Could this be because of some beneficial biological response mediated by the gut microbiota? And if so, could this response be replicated by means of FMT on a symptomatic Patient?

In my opinion, both these possibilities — FMT from cured or healthy donors (given any existing viral matter in the microbiota used in the transfusion is provenly inexistent or inactive at the time of transplantation) to symptomatic Patients — should be studied as a possible strategy to treat covid-19.

If effective, it could perhaps be considered in the future as a viable strategy to readily assist the medical community in obtaining an effective treatment for a new unforeseen virus.

1. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gastroenterology_hepatology/clinical_services/advanced_endoscopy/fecal_transplantation.html
2. https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/colleges/mds/facilities/advanced-therapies-facility/microbiome-treatment-centre.aspx
3. https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/langas/PIIS2468-1253(20)30124-2.pdf
4. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-31613-0
5. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/02/coronavirus-why-dont-people-get-sick/